Supreme court dismisses Tambuwal’s bid to stop action against his nomination

• Orders Federal High Court To Retry Case

The Supreme Court has dismissed the bid by Sokoto State Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal to stop a court action by the All Progressive Congress (APC) challenging the propriety of his nomination for last year’s governorship election.

The court held that Tambuwal’s nomination by his party could be challenged by another governorship aspirant, Senator Umaru Dahiru, on the ground that he has sufficient justifiable cause for the action.

The five-man panel of the apex court, in a unanimous decision, held that to agree with Tambuwal that the primary election that produced him cannot be challenged by another governorship aspirant is to allow democracy to be murdered by the governor.

The apex court, in the lead judgment read by Justice Chima Nweza, set aside the decision of the Court of Appeal, stating that the action instituted by Dahiru against Tambuwal had been overtaken by events on the strength of the election of the governor.

It held that the appellate court erred in law by holding that the events had overtaken the case of the appellant because the governorship had been conducted after the primary election.

The court, therefore, ordered that a Federal High Court in Abuja should retry the case on its merit and make decision as required by law.

Dahiru had challenged the conduct of the primary election that produced Tambuwal as the candidate of APC on the ground that it was fraught with fraud and the original list of the delegates for primary election was swapped in favour of Tambuwal.

The Federal High Court, Abuja, as a result of this development, would now determine the matter on merit as ordered by the Supreme Court.